The present disclosure relates generally to portable media devices and in particular to determining a docking status of a portable media device using data from one or more motion sensors.
Modern portable media devices are increasingly being manufactured with some form of integrated motion detection built into the mobile device. The primary use for these integrated motion detection devices is to detect any freefall of the portable mobile device or determine the orientation of the portable media device.
Some portable media devices are configured to change the screen orientation based on the orientation of the portable media device. Most of the portable media devices that are capable of detecting orientation have an accelerometer built into the mobile device. An accelerometer is a device that measures the acceleration it experiences relative to freefall. Single and multi-axis accelerometers are available that can detect magnitude and direction of the acceleration as a vector quantity, and can be used to sense orientation, vibration, and shock.
Most of the portable media devices that have a built-in accelerometer use the accelerometer to provide limited amount of functionality like determining screen orientation, providing power management, and providing a user input tool such as shuffling media tracks stored in the portable media device when the user shakes the portable media device.